NYSTCE ATAS Assessment Skills 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: When reviewing a student's portfolio, the TA should understand that the PRIMARY purpose of a portfolio is to:
- Assign a single overall grade to the student
- Show a collection of student work that demonstrates growth over time (Correct answer)
- Replace standardized tests for accountability purposes
- Identify students who need special education services
Correct answer: Show a collection of student work that demonstrates growth over time
Portfolios compile student work samples across time to illustrate progress and learning rather than serve as a single snapshot.
Question 2: A student with an IEP receives extended time on assessments. The TA administering the test should:
- Offer extended time only if the student asks for it
- Provide the extended time as specified in the IEP without requiring the student to request it (Correct answer)
- Check with the principal before providing any accommodations
- Provide extended time only on major tests, not quizzes
Correct answer: Provide the extended time as specified in the IEP without requiring the student to request it
IEP accommodations are legally mandated and must be consistently implemented as written, not left to student discretion.
Question 3: Which of the following is an example of informal assessment?
- A state standardized achievement test
- A teacher-made end-of-unit test worth 100 points
- Observation of a student during a small group activity (Correct answer)
- A norm-referenced reading inventory
Correct answer: Observation of a student during a small group activity
Informal assessments like observation, questioning, and discussion occur naturally during instruction without formal scoring procedures.
Question 4: A TA is asked to record how many times a student calls out without raising their hand during a 30-minute lesson. This technique is called:
- Anecdotal recording
- Event recording (frequency count) (Correct answer)
- Time sampling
- Duration recording
Correct answer: Event recording (frequency count)
Event recording counts each occurrence of a specific behavior, making it suitable for discrete, countable behaviors like calling out.
Question 5: Norm-referenced tests are PRIMARILY designed to:
- Determine whether students have mastered specific learning objectives
- Compare an individual student's performance to a larger reference group (Correct answer)
- Provide feedback to guide day-to-day instruction
- Measure growth from the beginning to the end of a course
Correct answer: Compare an individual student's performance to a larger reference group
Norm-referenced tests rank students relative to a normative sample, showing how a student performs compared to peers.
Question 6: A TA should treat all student assessment data as:
- Public information that can be shared with other students
- Confidential information shared only with appropriate school personnel (Correct answer)
- Data that parents may never access
- Information that can be posted on the classroom bulletin board
Correct answer: Confidential information shared only with appropriate school personnel
Under FERPA, student assessment data is confidential and may only be shared with school personnel who have a legitimate educational need.
Question 7: During a reading assessment, a student self-corrects an error without prompting. The TA should:
- Count the original error and the self-correction as two errors
- Record the self-correction separately, as it indicates monitoring comprehension (Correct answer)
- Ignore self-corrections since they still indicate reading difficulty
- Stop the assessment and report it to the teacher immediately
Correct answer: Record the self-correction separately, as it indicates monitoring comprehension
Self-corrections indicate a student is actively monitoring meaning, which is positive reading behavior and should be recorded distinctly from uncorrected errors.
NYSTCE ATAS Assessment Skills 3
When reviewing a student's portfolio, the TA should understand that the PRIMARY purpose of a portfolio is to: